D.B. Cooper auctioned off for $37,433.38

That’s what 15 of the $20 bills the legendary hijacker carried off in the famed 1971 heist earned at the auction block this morning.

Found buried in sand near Vancouver, Washington in 1980, this $20 bill with the handwritten initials of a skyjacking case investigator was purchased in the auction for $6,572. (Photo courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries.)

The bills were part of a larger auction scheduled for today and Saturday, as we told you Thursday — but an early part. The lots were all sold this morning from the Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries.

The auction did have an online component, but those bids closed Thursday night, said Heritage spokeswoman Kelly Norwine.

Several winning bidders were from Oregon, Norwine said, including one from Portland, where Cooper boarded the now famous flight to Seattle where he held passengers hostage for a $200,000 ransom. (Read more here.)

“There’s obviously still tremendous interest in the legendary case, 37 years after the skyjacker jumped from a jetliner with the ransom money and vanished,” said Greg Rohan, president of Heritage.

“I was ten years old when it happened and I remember it like it was yesterday, sitting at the family Thanksgiving table in West Seattle hearing the news. For a young boy, it was fascinating. I’ve always wondered if Cooper lived the high life for a while or became bear food,” Rohan recalled.

No Seattleites ended up with Cooper’s bills. But Norwine said the bidder who paid the most for any one bill — $6,572.50, including the buyer’s premium — hails from somewhere “near Seattle.”

The bills were discovered in 1980 near Portland by Brian Ingram of Mena, Ark.